American Coot

The following sequence was shot at Santee Lakes in March, 2007. This was a fairly lenghty (several minutes) and violent battle between two American Coots, I would assume for some sort of dominance pertaining to breeding. Finally a third Coot seems to enter the melee and pretty much break up the battle. There was certainly enough violence during this match to have caused serious injury to one or both of the birds however they both seemed to have survived in good shape.